Agricultural roller assemblies are used to level the ground after sowing cereal plants and hay for examples. A rolled and smoothed soil surface prevents equipment damage at the harvest time and allows for a shorter cut of the harvested plants.
It is believed that among the preferred requirements of cereal growers relative to agricultural roller assemblies, commonly referred to as rollers or land rollers, the prevailing characteristic is that a roller assembly must have a forwardly-pointing-triangular deployed arrangement. This type of configuration is preferred by growers for being easier to pull on hilly grounds and for being easier to turn around at the end of a field. This arrangement is also appreciated for causing minimum scraping of the soil and associated damage to a sown area when turning.
Examples of prior art roller assemblies having three rolls arranged in a triangular formation are illustrated in the following documents:
U.S. Pat. No. 62,822, issued on Mar. 12, 1867 to H. R. Crowe; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 96,513, issued on Nov. 2, 1869 to E. A. Uehling; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 182,044, issued on Sep. 12, 1876 to A. H. Ufford; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 386,220, issued on Jul. 17, 1888 to J. Riebold. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,732 issued on Jan. 30, 1990 to C. K. G. Stark; PA1 CA Patent 1,281,229 issued on Mar. 12, 1991 to H. C. Hadley et al.
A further preferred requirement for an agricultural roller assembly is believed to be that the machine should be foldable in a compact arrangement and be transportable on wheels from one field to another. In that respect, examples of prior art land rollers capable of being folded in a roadworthy configuration are:
The machines illustrated and described in these latter-mentioned documents are articulated hydraulically and the folding and unfolding thereof require the movement of the tractor to drag the wing rollers in position for transport or for rolling. The locking of the wing rolls in both positions appears to be effected with pins and shackles.
In a preferred land roller for smoothing agricultural lands, it is also believed that the machine should have as much transversal flexibility as possible to allow each roll to travel over irregularities of the soil without causing undue stresses to the machine's parts. It is also preferable that the adjacent roll ends share a common transversal articulated support such that the adjacent roll ends remain on a same horizontal plane or move in unison when either rolls encounters a clod, a mound or a hollow for example. This characteristic ensures smooth transition surfaces between adjacent rolls. This particular feature is partly illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,245,865 issued on Jun. 17, 1941 to R. G. LeTourneau.
Another preferred requirement for land rollers is believed to be that the wing rolls should overlap the path of the leading roll for providing a smooth soil surface free of transition ridges. This characteristic was present in the older models of land rollers such as some of those firstly mentioned above, but was later abandoned for being impracticable on conventional foldable rollers and in the latter-mentioned flexible structure of the prior art.
Although the agricultural land rollers of the prior art deserve undeniable merits, there is no known machine that combines all the above-mentioned preferred requirements. The agricultural rollers of the prior art are believed to be deficient at least one of the above preferred features, and it is this reason basically that has contributed to the development of a market demand for a better land roller capable of smoothing a field without leaving transition ridge, and capable of being easily foldable for transport on public roads.